Thursday, 9 April 2009

EC has final jurisdiction towards any Election

What it means is that EC can render any representative as invalid atany time without any cause at all.

Also the Speaker is no longer immune. It means that Gobind Singh canchallenge in court his suspension for a year by Pandikar.

Also it means that any word "immune" in any act is meaningless becauseother bodies can challenge these words.

As to a so callled lawyer, Ranjit Singh were gullible to considertoday's decision as only refering to this particular case, it willmean that all other cases are also unique and this has never happenedin any legal history anywhere in the world.

The decision of any court is a guide for other decisions, but thisdecision is so preposterous that no other nation will be able to referto it. Soon, all decisions in the Malaysian court will just be rubbishand only applicable for a case by case basis.

PUTRAJAYA, April 9 - The continuing bid by the Perak Pakatan Rakyat(PR) to regain power in the state was hit by a near-fatal blow todaywhen the Federal Court ruled that the Election Commission and not thestate legislative speaker had the power to decide on vacancies in thestate assembly.

With this ruling, the three former PR state lawmakers who have becomeBarisan Nasional (BN) friendly independents will be allowed to keeptheir seats.

Lead counsel for the Election Commission Firoz Hussein AhmadJamaluddin argued that the EC was an independent body givenjurisdiction by the State and Federal constitutions.

"Paragraph 6 under Section 12-3 says a casual vacancy is a vacancyestablished by the EC," said Firoz Hussein.

However lead counsel for Speaker V. Sivakumar Tommy Thomas argued thatany proceedings of the State Assembly cannot be questioned in anycourt, a law that also covers parliament.

"If that is not proceedings, then I don't know what is," argued Thomasas he referred to Sivakumar's letter to the EC asking them to hold by-elections after receiving resignation letters from both Mohd Radzi andMohd Osman.

During the hearing Justice James Foong however noted that by givingthe EC power to make such decisions would set a dangerous precedencethat could affect the Dewan Rakyat.

"If we allow one body to have supreme jurisdiction then we are gettinginto trouble. I am talking about checks and balances. You will realisethat this will have far reaching consequences stretching to the DewanRakyat," said Foong as he questioned the Attorney-GeneralTan Sri Abdul Gani Patail.

The five-men panel however reassured Sivakumar's counsel that thedecision will not have any prejudice in terms of the two other suitsthat are currently being heard in the Kuala Lumpur High Court wherethere are two suits filled against the Election Commission decision tonot hold by-elections.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insider counsel for Sivakumar, Ranjit Singhasserted that the result of today's case only meant that the ElectionCommission is the correct body to make the decision on such an issuebut the decision still can be challenged.

"Just because the Election Commission can make the decision, however.that doesn't make it right. In any government decision, it is subjectto challenge in court," said Singh.